Penrhyn Island will be seeking government assistance to transport over 1000 guests expected to attend the opening of the Cook Islands Christian Mission (CICC) House next year.

Island’s executive officer Puna Vano says they held a meeting last week and they are gearing up for the big occasion where they are estimating more than 1000 Cook Islanders from overseas to attend.

The number of visitors to the northern group island for this event has been capped at 1500.

Vano said they would be talking with the government in terms of shipping services to be provided to transport the guests mostly comprising of people from the island now residing overseas.

“It looks like we will have 280 passengers for three shipping services.”

Vano said they have already received an average of 840 bookings and the cut off for booking would be June 30 this year.

Last year government spent $1.3 million to charter Lady Samoa IV vessel to transport around 170 passengers to Pukapuka-Nassau. The charter came about in 2022, after a group of people from Pukapuka, who live in New Zealand and Australia, got in touch with the island MP Tingika Elikana to see if transport could be arranged for them to go to the island.

In Parliament in February this year, Prime Minister Mark Brown revealed the total spent to facilitate travel and goods transportation for overseas families wanting to travel to the Pa Enua during the festive season.

Brown said this brought connection and activity to the Pa Enua, maintaining important links with the diaspora.

He said contract negotiations resulted in $675,000 spent on the charter and the government recovered approximately $307,000 through fares from passengers and freight charges.

The Penrhyn CICC Meeting House was destroyed in a fire in the Easter weekend of 2022 where the pastor’s house was also damaged.

The Ekalesia House was built in 1987/88 and according to earlier reports, families from New Zealand, Australia and Rarotonga fundraised and funded the construction of the building, located near the harbour.

Vano says the construction of the Mission House is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Preparations for the opening ceremony have started and Vano said that they were seeking the cooperation of everyone including having a ra’ui in place that would be lifted in 2025.